


kill her

by Frostberry



Category: Killing Eve (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Harry Potter AU, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:14:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22769110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frostberry/pseuds/Frostberry
Summary: Eve is an Auror, who seems to see the same Metamorphmagus each time something bad happens. She’s starting to think Villanelle is sending a message… Killing Eve!HP AU.
Relationships: Eve Polastri/Villanelle | Oksana Astankova
Comments: 25
Kudos: 64





	1. bodies bobbing like balloons

“That bloody muggle killer is at it again,” Kenny read from the owl sent to their office in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Eve looked up, almost jumping out of her chair after almost falling asleep from a long, boring day filled with paperwork. “Family of four, strung upside down. Muggles _swear_ they were floating, bumping the ceiling like little balloons.” 

_What the hell. The murders were just getting weirder and weirder._ Eve groaned. Her eyes felt like they were being pecked out by owls; she put her forehead down on her desk, smudging some ink from the parchment she was writing on. 

“The Russian Ministry wants us to go see it.” 

At that point, the memo burned away into little cinders, as Kenny had finished reading it. With a tap of his wand, the charred remains went into the fireplace behind Eve’s desk. 

When Eve was first recruited into the subdivision of various Aurors, hit Wizards and Administrators in a dingy little office on the same floor as the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, they thought they’d be able to put a stop to it. It had been almost a year since the Female Muggle Killer (Or FM Killer, or the Fuck, Marry, Kill-er as Kenny called it) had struck down upon the muggle and wizarding population. It was a string of strange deaths around Europe - usually leaving behind a curse. Eve was one hundred percent sure it was a female killer, possibly an assassin. The problem was the curses on some of the murders could not be removed by men. A woman had to undo it, making it a unique case of the same killer going around Europe; and since the killings it started in England, the Ministry of Magic got first dibs. Eve was _fascinated_ with this string of killings. They were creative and obvious it was a witch who was raking havoc. Maybe it was a big _fuck you_ to the patrichary? 

Kenny and Carolyn didn’t think so. They had their own conspiracies and ideas. It had been a week since the last murder - a man on a beach in Poland who was solidified by a rock binding curse and then suffocated as his head was pushed in the sand. It wasn’t until a while later people realised it was not a sculpture, but an actual dead person. Luckily a witch on holiday had unbounded the curse before any wizards tried to. 

“Who is going out there?” 

“The two idiot Oblivators from downstairs, some Russian ministry officials, that Fletchley bloke who knows how to erase newspaper reports…,” Kenny was scribbling down something with his quill. “And you, Eve.” 

If only Eve felt surprised; she felt a rush of excitement. She hadn’t been to the murder scenes since the one in Austria. “Maybe she’s left a lot more evidence, for once.” 

“I doubt it,” Kenny put his quill down and stretched. “When you come back, get me a coffee, will you?” He yawned, and handed over the notes to Eve. “Tell the Oblivators to read their notes this time.” 

Eve barely heard what Kenny had said. She took the scroll of parchment, took her dark green robes off the hook by the door and apparated.

*** 

Eve went through the case notes in her head again and again while walking down the little path to enter the one way street in a little village in Kaliningrad Oblast. She was slightly off her destination - she’d never been to the region before and usually she was very good at getting to where she wanted. 

On the ground floor of a depressing looking set of grey flats with a muddy footpath and filled with overgrown grass, the door was open. A crime scene police tape was rolled around the gate, swaying lazily in the cold breeze. 

Eve ducked under the tape and greeted the man by the door. “Hi.” She fumbled in her pocket, and got out her Auror card. “I’m an Auror with the British Ministry of Magic.” 

The man nodded and let her through, who walked out and apparated just before touching the police tape. 

In the dingy little lounge room, she found the two Obliviators arguing with a Russian wizard. Their wands were held at their own throats as they shouted back and forth in two different languages using a translating spell. 

Eve knew very little Russian, but could understand vaguely that none of them knew how to get the family off the ceiling. It was then she noticed them, bobbing away in the corner - and as Kenny described it - like little balloons. It was two little girls in red dresses, with blonde pigtails. The mother's head was tapping on the wall, pale as the grey wallpaper itself. The father had floated down the doorway and into another room, and because Eve couldn’t see most of his body, only his legs, it looked like he had been hanged. 

“ _Resilio_.” 

The obliviators stopped arguing as Eve had pointed her wand at the three of them stuck on the corner of the ceiling. They deflated, slowly to the ground, with a slight _thump_ they landed on a carpet, one of the girls on the lounge suite. 

“V’e tried that,” the wizard who was speaking Russian before now said in English. “‘That didn’t v’ork. The others ‘ave gone back to our Ministry to get curse breakers - Tell me, ‘hy are there British people ‘e’re?” 

“You can speak _English_?” One of the Oblivators looked very annoyed. The father bobbed past him, head hitting the lightbulb. Eve pointed her wand up and repeated the spell. 

The father fell to the floor, face down on the coffee table. 

Eve looked at them up and down, slowly. “We are here because we believe this dark witch has been committing crimes around Europe.” 

“What makes you think it’s a _witch_?” The other Oblivator, whom Eve recognised as Abbott, said haughtily. Eve glared back at him. 

“Because only a female could undo the curse,” she snapped back at him. “Merlin’s _fucking_ beard, did you not read the memo sent before you apparated here?” Before he could reply, she kept going. “No, because you didn’t read it - that’s how this killer has been getting away with everything! Idiots like you don’t read!” 

The three wizards stood with their mouths open while Eve exaimed the bodies to commit to memory. “Go and get the Wizarding Coroner to take them away.” 

Eve turned, angry at herself, to leave out the front door. 

“Should have brought in a hit wizard, not some dodgy auror!” Abbott called back. She gave him the finger. 

“Kiss my ass.” 

Eve threw the front door open, to find a woman about to knock on the door. She stepped back, surprised. 

“I am so sorry-” she said, in a thick accent similar to the Russian wizard inside. “I - I apologise, it’s just -” She rummaged through the blue satchel behind her, which then Eve recognised her as possibly a postwoman on her ground. “I ‘ave mail, and there is a missing parcel card for the family. Here.” 

She had blonde hair in a messy ponytail. There was a blue mail van behind her, which was still running. The woman shoved a stack of mail and the missing parcel card in Eve’s hands. 

“Thank you!” She waved, and walked under the police tape, hopped in the car and drove off. 

Eve was too astonished to even move. 

***

By the time Eve apparated back to London, it was now ten past six and Carolyn was poised nicely in her office, as if waiting for her. She was using her wand to swish a cup of tea slightly, and it moved gently about in the cup. 

Eve came into the small cramped office, feeling frazzled. “You must have gotten my patronus, Carolyn?” 

“Yes,” said Carolyn, handing a cup of tea over to Eve. “If it’s still a Ferret talking in a Canadian accent, then it must be you.” 

“I feel like this is the first lead we have.” She handed over the muggle’s mail to Carolyn. Eve herself had opened the letters, only finding bills. “It’s this.” 

On the front, it read _We Are Sorry for Missing Your Parcel._ On the back, was a hasty note which read: 

_Surprise, EVE_

“What does this mean?” Carolyn looked innocently at Eve. “A clue?” 

“I rechecked with the Oblivators, they had a forcefield around the area so no muggle could get in. A postwoman gave me this at the front door - she must have been a witch. Then she mentioned a family missing their parcel - how did she know the family would not answer the door? And the card says ‘ _Surprise, EVE_ ’ in capitals - is this cryptic?” 

Carolyn was silent for several moments. Eve guessed she was thinking fast. “Hmm,” she sipped her tea and looked at the card carefully. “If you look closely - there’s dots where the letters connect, like a dot to dot puzzle.” She flipped the card over, examining it. “I think that’s all there is to it. Are you able to let go of your memories so I can go in and take a look?” 

“Sure.” Eve moved over to the large pensieve in the cabinet, where it was floating gently. She opened the cabinet and it swayed a little as it hovered into the middle of the room. With her wand pressed to her forehead, she muttered the extraction spell in her mind, and the thick silvery substance swirled out of her temple, and into the wispy smoke of the pensieve. 

Carolyn gave her the card back when she was done, and went face first into the pensieve, leaving Eve alone in the office. 

Knowing Carolyn, she would take forever in the pensieve - she went over every detail again and again, usually. In the meantime Eve stared at the handwriting. It was definitely done with a quill, instead of a ballpoint pen like muggles would use. She went over to Kenny’s desk, to see if he had any handwriting recognizer quills in his drawer. Before she started rummaging, the map of Europe caught her eye, large and behind the stack of his spell books. 

There were pins where they knew the killer had been. There were twelve pins, criss crossing over countries, with little tags showing what day and time the murders took place. 

What if there were _more_ than twelve? 

Using some string from Kenny’s drawer, she pulled out the ball and started weaving it through the pins, starting by time and date. The first murders Eve knew about was in Newcastle, at the end of December when fifty two muggles died of a mass _Avada Kedavra_ curse while shopping.

The next one was the Isle of White, a couple on holiday were found with their mouths split open by some trees that had uprooted and attacked them. It was gruesome - Eve had accidentally vomited on some evidence that day. A similar case had happened in Belgium the next day, then back to Isle of White where the ferry turned upside down and everyone drowned… 

Putting together the string with the pins, Eve had started a map out of all the murders that had happened in the year. 

She stepped back, with dread, to find what was written on the map: 

**L \ E**

“I think it's supposed to say ‘Eve’.” 

Eve jumped; Carolyn had come back from her memories and had not made a sign she was there. “It’s obvious.” 

“It could be a coincidence,” said Eve hurriedly, putting the rest of the string back in Kenny’s desk. “Unless there are some murders we don’t know about.” 

Carolyn nodded. “Let’s see… Don’t tell my son I’m going through his books, will you?” Carolyn sat down at Kenny’s desk, and took out his large book of _Magical Newspapers of Europe (New editions added everyday!)._ “Now the Muggles have voted for Brexit, we don’t have as much access to European Ministry reports…” Carolyn then started muttering under her breath, the book flicking to certain pages before moving onto other ones. 

“So are you saying,” said Eve, pointing at the map, “There should have been a murder here, here and here?” She pointed between the lines of where the first E’s and the V’s were. 

Carolyn made her usual nonchalant sound, and then raised her eyebrows, in surprise. 

“On the 24th of December, a witch broke out of Azkaban,” Carolyn pointed at the news article. The words were translating in front of Eve’s very eyes so she could see what was written there. “Azkaban is in the North Sea, in a straight line from Newcastle…” 

That was making sense. Eve bit her lip, trying to contain her excitement. They _finally_ had something. 

“ _The Danish Daily Prophet_ did not say who it was,” Carolyn continued. “But luckily, I know who this witch is,” She looked straight into Eve’s eyes. They were open, brown, and honest, compared to Eve’s dark and almost frightened ones. “She makes Lord Voldemort look positively normal, compared to the things she has done… Her name is Villanelle, and she is one of the darkest witches to ever haunt this Earth.”


	2. done the dishes for you

Eve would have rather apparated onto her doorstep, but she knew muggles could potentially be outside her house. She paid a few sickles to connect to the Floo Powder Network; she didn’t like using it, but it was faster than taking the underground with its overcrowded trains filled with muggles. 

Her muggle husband, Niko, was a Maths teacher in an academy near their semi detached home. It took him a long time to be comfortable with the fact his wife was a witch - which she did not mention until their wedding day when Eve’s mother brought her house elves to help clean up the afterparty. 

The Wizarding World seemed so conservative compared to the Muggle World. Some of the technology, like CCTV footage, was useful for Eve’s work; all they needed to do was mutter a spell to extract all the recording to use and put into the pensieve. 

Still, instead of emails she used owls and Niko’s students were used to seeing the birds tapping on the classroom windows. Niko had also showed Eve how to use the computer, and a phone - which she didn’t really use either in her day to day life, but knew enough to do an online ASDA order instead of going down to the markets in Diagon Alley. The photographs in the house knew how to hush and be silent when Niko’s family came to visit, and they enjoyed the benefits of the house being clean within a few seconds. At the moment it wasn’t clean, and Eve didn’t bother with the effort of using  _ Scourgify _ to tidy up. 

When she entered the kitchen, she saw that Niko had done the dishes and the dishwasher was on. He must have gone out - usually he’d leave a note if he needed to go out somewhere. 

On the fridge, there was one. But it wasn’t from him. 

Eve started to panic when she saw the same  _ Missing Parcel  _ card from this morning.

_ Done the dishes for you xoxo  _

***

Eve put the card on Carolyn’s desk the next morning; it fell on it with the _done the dishes for you xoxo_ side of the card. She hadn’t had much sleep. “I got this last night.” 

“You could have sent it by owl.” Carolyn put her glasses on and had a look at the card in question, examining it thoroughly. 

“I didn’t want to,” she kept it by her side at night, even when Niko came home hammered with a few friends from work. She sat down at her own desk, which was covered in sneakoscopes. Eve then tried to imagine the blonde postwoman staring back at her in the spinning glass top. 

Besides Kenny and Carolyn, the cramped little office was occupied by someone else. A man in dark purple robes and a long wizard’s hat was looking out of the underground window into a nice area of London, admiring the view. 

“Who’s this?” Eve nodded towards the new man at the window. 

“This is Konstantin,” said Carolyn, using her wand to send over the card to the bearded man. “He’s a friend… of Villanelle’s.” 

The man smirked at her, as if he’d seen Eve before. “Ah! This is definitely her handwriting. It is an honour for you to meet Villanelle.” 

_ What?  _

He got down from the window, hovering slightly before he got to the ground, and shook Eve’s hand; she felt suspicious. 

“...Thank you, I guess.” 

He beamed. “You’re welcome.” 

_ Riiiiight _ . Instead of wanting to give anymore attention to this weirdo, she turned to Carolyn to catch up on what she had done while Eve had gone home. Turns out, Carolyn had gone through all the memories in the pensieve to find Villanelle, only to find  _ lots  _ of different faces, and not one of them was the woman Eve had met yesterday. 

“I’m guessing the very last meeting of her was her actual form,” said Carolyn, bringing up the database higher to the ceiling so she could get more images in. “The unknown people in the area of the murders. She may have been disguised, Eve.” 

“Villanelle hangs around the crime scene,” Konstatin supplied. “She  _ loves  _ seeing muggle reactions.” 

Eve turned to Konstatin, feeling cross. “Why are you - a man who claims to know someone who has possibly killed more people than Lord Voldemort himself - giving us information?” 

Konstatin let out a harsh laugh. 

“Because I am not a dark wizard anymore, and I have done my time in Azkaban. I know her disguises. She does them well. We go way back, Villanelle and I.” 

Konsatatin went over to the pensieve and waved his wand. “She’s a metamorphmagus.” 

At once, hundreds of different faces appeared in front of them, which floated up to join the twenty or so that Carolyn had conjured. 

“A what?” Eve vaguely knew the word, trying not to look at all the faces staring down at her. It was creepy. “Is that something to do with changing face?” 

“It’s a very rare talent,” said Konstatin, “Where you can change your appearance at will.” 

Hundreds of disguises.

The ability to change her appearance at will….

How on  _ earth _ were they going to catch her? Eve sighed, and looked back up at the ceiling. 

There was a moving image of a baby crying, a journalist scribbling away which Eve recognised as the one she shouted at to tell them to go away when they found the bodies in Newcastle, an old man who was blind was trying to open the door to a grisly scene in Belgium… And then one of the pictures Carolyn had conjured up looked familiar… 

It was the wizard who had let her into the flat the day before. 

“How do you know this is her?” Eve nodded towards the smirking wizard, his gaze piercing Eve. She felt uncomfortable. 

“She usually keeps her eyes,” supplied Konstantin. “It’s her signature.” 

“There is a database of known metamorphmagus,” said Carolyn, now over at Kenny’s desk and going through a book similar to the newspaper logs she looked at yesterday. “Villanelle is not on the register.” 

Konstantin let out another laugh. “Of course she’s not on there! She is a fly on the wall - a spider in the night. You’ll never know she existed until she’s in front of you, muttering the Cruciatus Curse until your brain is so damaged you think you’re a turnip.” 

Carolyn was silent, humming while she went through Kenny’s documents. 

“Why is it then she wrote my name all over Europe?” Eve said, breaking the silence. She looked over at the map which was behind Kenny’s desk. It had bugged her last night - a string of murders writing her name, thousands of miles apart. “And she broke into my house? What’s going on?” 

Carolyn and Konstantin looked at each other. “I don’t know,” said Carolyn, softly. “Neither you or I have ever met her before.” 

Quickly, they changed the subject - Eve felt as if maybe the two of them were _not_ exactly telling the truth. 

***

Eve got home late that night - she had sent an owl to Niko to say she’d she wouldn’t be back till night time. Carolyn made her rewatch every single time one of their team had gone to investigate the killings. Now Eve understood - she hadn’t been to many, but she recognised the same blue eyes with the slight crinkle around them. 

It was just past 9pm when Eve appeared on her  _ Welcome Home  _ mat. The streetlight outside their house was out, so it was easier for her to come back at night. The door hadn’t been shut properly, and she prodded it with her wand to let herself in. 

It seemed Niko was in bed - he had left out a half frozen meal for her of Shepard’s Pie. The dishes were taken out the dishwasher, neatly stacked away in the cupboard. It seemed Niko had come home and tidied a little after realising Eve was not going to use her cleaning charm to tidy up. 

“ _ Cooqus. _ ” The pie shrivelled a little and steam came out from the mashed potato. Niko had his own microwave which Eve didn’t know how to use. She couldn’t figure out why Niko would spend a minute waiting around to heat food while she could get it cooked in a second. But then again, the microwave had to have an anti-magic charm on it so it wouldn’t blow up around Eve’s wand. 

The sink washed the dish itself when Eve was done, and she went upstairs, feeling tired. 

“Babe?” 

She went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face. “Hey! Just doing my teeth.” Niko sounded a little bit sleepy, so it wasn’t like Eve was in a rush to get to bed or anything. The lightbulb in the bathroom flashed. Electricity and magic didn’t mix very well - she put her wand into her dressing gown and glared at the bulb in the mirror. 

“Long day?” Niko asked, when Eve came into the bedroom. She sighed, and took her hair out of its ponytail. Her long curls fell past her shoulders. “You look very tired. What’s happened?” 

Eve wasn’t supposed to talk about her work with anyone outside of Magical Law Enforcement; nor Carolyn would be impressed if she talked about it with her  _ muggle  _ husband. “Just… I discovered there is a woman out there with a million faces.” 

“A million?” Niko didn’t quite believe it. 

Eve rolled her eyes. “No,  _ Mr Maths Teacher,  _ that was a figure of speech.” 

He smirked. “So a hundred, then?” 

“Something like that.” She flopped into bed and put her wand on her chest of drawers next to her. “I’m not supposed to talk about it.” 

Niko snuggled down a little in his bed. “You can tell me.” 

Eve smiled at her husband, and then snuggled down a little more so than Niko, so her duvet was covering up to her shoulders. “The witch I told you about has been going around Europe, we found out who she is today.” 

Niko looked surprised, and leaned in close. “What does she look like?” 

Eve almost got her pillow out to smack him. “You idiot! Were you not listening? She has a  _ million  _ faces!” 

“I’m so tired, Eve. Why don’t I just kiss you goodnight and we’ll forget about it?” 

Eve leaned in, her eyes closed, as she kissed the lips of her husband. He was such a kind, understanding man, although a little vague and completely missed the point sometimes… It was nice having someone to talk to… 

Until she opened her eyes to see Villanelle looking right back at her. 

Eve screamed, and got out of bed so fast she smacked her head against the wall. She fell down, the wallpaper peeling a little against her hair as she reached the carpet. Villanelle looked exactly the same as yesterday morning, except wearing her husband’s blue pyjamas and holding Eve’s wand. 

“Where’s - where’s,  _ where -”  _ Eve stuttered, her hands shaking as she tried to get up. “...is Niko?” 

“Oh, he’s fine.” Villanelle beamed at her. “A knockout potion did the trick.” She got up, and pointed Eve’s wand at the bedroom door. It slammed shut. 

She was too frightened to move. The woman who potentially was  _ guilty  _ of at least one hundred muggle killings, along with the fact she broke into Eve’s  _ house  _ yesterday, had moved over to the side of the bed, waving her legs as they barely touched the floor. “Why are you in my house? Where did you put Niko!?” 

Villianelle’s face went from looking triumphant to… sad. “I’m in your house because I wanted to see you, silly. Did you miss me?” 

“I don’t understand? Where’s Niko?” 

Villianelle’s eyes looked over to the bedroom door that had been slammed shut. “He’s in the spare bedroom, he’s fine. But I’m not here for him, Eve. I’m so sad - it took you to the very last murder to  _ figure out it was me! _ ” 

Her face contorted slightly, as if it had been changing into someone else’s. Eve was confused - she had  _ no idea why  _ this was happening - or what was going on - or how did she get involved with this? 

_ Oh wait,  _ she thought.  _ She was an Auror looking for a Muggle murderer.  _

Villanelle had started talking, and Eve wasn’t listening until she was in mid sentence. “...It has been so long since we have been together, I just wanted your attention, it was like you’ve never met or seen me before!” 

“...I don’t understand. I literally  _ don’t know you.”  _

Villianelle’s eyes flashed. It was - what it seemed, a look of betrayal. “Were you pretending you didn’t recongise my faces, out of the all times you came to my murder scenes? I  _ always  _ keep the same eyes, that's what you always told me to do!” 

“I’ve  _ never  _ met you in my life!” 

Eve leapt up, thinking about the Auror training on what to do when you were wandless, and reached out before Villanelle had time to react. In her mind she summoned her wand, and the connection between her and her wand was strong enough for it to be pulled out of Villianelle’s grip. 

There was bang, and Niko had opened the door with a chair as it had been thrown with all his might through the door. It bounced near the end of the bed; he looked furious. It seemed the Knockout Potion had stopped working. Villanelle leapt up, and Eve took the opportunity to disarm her while she was distracted. 

“ _ Expellarmius!”  _

The short ugly wand Villanelle was holding flew into Eve’s hand, and she caught it. Now Villanelle was surrounded. She was standing on the bed, breathing hard. Her blonde hair had come down in strands around her shoulders, and peeked through her hair at Eve. “Forgive me, Eve - I will try harder next time.” 

“What the  _ fuck  _ is going on!?” Niko shouted, and at the same time there was a crack, as Villanelle apparated. And that was when Eve turned her wand onto Niko, panicking. 

“ _ Obliviate. _ ” 


	3. banana in the bread bin

Over breakfast in the morning, it was peaceful and quiet. Eve had conjured up some bacon and eggs; she usually overcooked when she was anxious. Niko went to get some bread out to toast. 

“...I found a banana in the bread bin,” said Niko. “Did I put that in there?” 

“...No?” 

“I must be going mad,” he said. “I feel like I’m forgetting things.” 

Eve didn’t say anything. She felt awful for obviating her husband’s mind; but she knew seeing someone in his bed pointing two wands at his wife would drive him berserk, especially because he was powerless against magical objects. 

She decided to ask Kenny about potential memory charm damage later on in the office; this was possibly the third or fourth time she’d done it to Niko. There was that time a troll attacked their home because its favourite flowers were out in the front garden… He fell off her broom when they were going on an impromptu date to France and he didn’t want to take the Channel tunnel… the day he accidentally took Eve’s mug to work and it bit his fingers off… 

_ Okay,  _ maybe more than three times she had to make him forget things. 

“I don’t think you are, you are perfect to me,” said Eve, smiling at her husband. She put the smaller wand she’d taken from Villanelle in her bag, and her own in her robes. “I’m going in early.” 

“Get me a tub of Fortescue's ice cream, will you?” he called out just as she was about to apparate away. “Lime and Dirigible plum.” 

***

Eve couldn’t trust the Wand Registration Office at the Ministry. Pargrave and Haleton were not on best wishes with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Luckily, she knew another way of identifying the wand she took from Villanelle. 

Gringotts bank had just opened for the day. A few witches and wizards were hanging around, doing financial business. The Goblins were making their rounds with buckets of galleons, using large counterfeiting scales to look for fake coins. After finding out the muggle world used debit or credit cards, she was envious because she hated having to carry around little bags of coins. She waited patiently for the wizard in front of her to stop asking the Goblin for a loan. 

It pointed a gnarly finger to the right. “Loans can be found in Knockturn Alley,” it said. “Go away. Next.” 

Eve stepped up to the ugly Goblin’s desk. “I’m here to put some cash in my vault,” she said. She spilled out the bag of money in front of the Goblin, who picked up a fifty pence piece from the pile of sickles and knuts. 

“This is muggle money.” 

“Must have gotten mixed up with my husbands, sorry,” she took the fifty pence away. “For my vault - Polastri.” 

“We need your wand for identification.” 

She opened her bag, and took out the short chestnut wand from yesterday, and handed it over. 

The Goblin put on his spectacles and checked his notes. 

“This is not your wand, you have a Hornbeam with Phoenix feather, Mrs Polestri.” 

Eve shifted a little. “I won it. Disarming charm. At the Hog’s Head. Who’s wand  _ was  _ it before me? So I could go and give it back?” 

The Goblin glared down at her. 

“Uh... Please?” 

“Hawthorn with Dittany Stalk, eight inches… this belonged to,” the Goblin flicked through his book. “Konstantin Vasiliev.” 

*** 

After promising the Goblin she’d go and give him back his wand, she went over to the Apothecary to pick up some potion she wanted. Veritaserum was only available in one or two drops, as it was heavily controlled by the Ministry. She had to show her ID card to get hold of it. Five galleons and fifteen sickles later, she realised she was a few minutes late for work. She put the rest of the money on the counter (along with the fifty pence piece, for good luck) and apparated out the shop and into her office. 

She put the kettle on, and was pouring herself a cup of tea when Konstantin walked in, looking a bit more cheerily than usual. 

“I hear you were paid a little visit last night.” 

Eve groaned. No matter what she hid from Carolyn, or Kenny, or whoever, they always found out. Behind Konstatin’s back, she added the drop of veritaserum, fresh from the apocopathy. 

“You should extract your memories so we can see what happened - Ah, thank you,” She gave Konstantin the cup, who sipped it. “Lovely.” He sighed. 

“Now give me all the information you have on Villanelle.” 

Eve had used veritaserum several times before, although never on anyone affiliated with the Ministry. People reacted differently to the potion, depending on who they were. Most people didn’t realise they had drunk it. Others would get angry and try to stop themselves from talking by trying to sew their mouths shut. 

But Eve only needed it for work purposes.

_ This  _ was a work purpose, right? She wondered. 

Calmly, Konstatin put his cup down. “I was her handler for some time. We were paid lots and lots of money by Muggles for assassinations. The weirder, the better. Yes, Eve - lots of money. Instead of changing the currency to galleons, we requested only Euros. I paid for private magical schooling for my children, and Villanelle brought nice clothes and remade them into trendy witches robes, or purchased muggle things and turned them into wizarding objects for fun. For example, she once had a coffee cup that would bite someone’s fingers off.” 

Eve had a brief sense of deja vu. “But how does she know me?” Eve demanded. 

“She was part of The Twelve.” Konstatin sipped his tea again, not realising that everything he had kept away from Eve was now all out in the open. 

“That wasn’t the question,” said Eve. “How does she KNOW me?” 

“Because you were also part of The Twelve.” 

Eve would have to get Kenny to research that later; she had no idea if that was a number, or gang, or what. “What is The Twelve?” 

“Dark wizards or witches that went undercover around Europe completing assassinations,” he said. “That is the simplest way of understanding The Twelve. But you know, Eve - You were the only thing she truly liked. Everything to her is an object. Objects don’t have emotion. I think  _ she  _ rather liked you. She was the one who recruited you, after all.” 

_ I must have been oblivated at one point. No wonder. But why was Konstatin in this office? To keep an eye on me? Now I’m on the ‘good’ side?  _ She wondered. 

Or was she on the bad side? 

Eve was milling over Konstatin’s information, when Carolyn came in at that point. “Eve, you look very pale.” She put her hand on Eve’s forehead. “Are you sick?” 

“No.” She so desperately wanted to extract her memories to look at later, but didn’t want Carolyn to find them. Carolyn ignored the lie and turned to Konstatin. 

“How are you today, Konstatin?” 

“Very happy,” He looked a bit dazed. “I am telling the truth when I say we are getting closer to Villanelle, I believe.” 

Kenny came in from behind Carolyn, holding several books and kicking the door shut. “Hello, everyone,” he said, putting the books down and sitting down on his chair. “Floo Powder Network was crazy today.” He wiped the sweat off his forehead and began stacking his books. 

“Excuse me,” said Carolyn, in a quite unfriendly voice. Eve could feel the coldness coming off her. “Kenny has a freckle on the left hand side of his mouth.” 

“What?” 

“ _ Confringo! _ ” 

Within several seconds Kenny’s dark curly hair had grown into blonde strands, and jumped out the way as the office was blown apart with an almighty  _ bang.  _ Books ripped apart, Eve’s biting coffee mug shattered on the floor and Konstatin was hit in the head with a piece of marble from the top of the fireplace. 

“I have your wand,” Eve reminded Villanelle, who was now standing right in front of her. 

Villanelle grinned. “It’s ok, I have another one.” A familiar looking wand was in Villanelle’s hand. “I only came today to give Eve flowers.” She flicked her wand, and a bunch of roses appeared. She bowed, and put them in Eve’s hands. Confused, Eve put them on her broken desk, and got out her own wand, keeping Konstatin’s well hidden. 

“What about my flowers?” Konstatin asked. 

“Pfft, you don’t deserve any.” Villanelle blew a raspberry in front of him. 

“I love you enough for them.” Eve remembered that Konstatin must still be under the memory charm. 

_ Shit _ . 

What if Carolyn finds out she did it? But Carolyn  _ always  _ found out something or other… The door was now open, and Eve could see into the hallway into the level for Magical Law Enforcement, which was getting crowded with witches and wizards, who were all armed with wands after hearing the office being blasted apart. 

“Get back,” Carolyn ordered the crowd. “ _ Protego! _ ” 

Konstatin got out a wand - which was nothing like the one Eve had hidden away, and summoned a cage, surrounded by ropes. It looked like a devil's snare, slimy and black. It cornered Villanelle and began to slither around her, trapping her down. 

“No!” Eve shouted. But Villanelle grinned, and her body began to change - her skin got wider and wider - at least a 115 stone woman was now bursting the cage open. The ropes blew apart. At once it contracted and she jumped out. 

That was when Eve used Kenny’s chair to hit her and she fell unconscious. 

*** 

“He’s got the lurgy, and she must have not known Kenny is my son.” 

“Maybe she did,” Eve pointed out. “She knows everything.” 

“Just like me,” said Carolyn. “Don’t go putting truth potions in people’s teas ever again.” She gave her quick smile. “Unless you have my full permission, of course.” 

_ Which I didn’t.  _

Eve was sick of repeating  _ Reparo  _ again and again because Carolyn had to blast the office apart. She could repair her own things, but burnt pieces of paper from Kenny’s bookshelf had to be replaced by him when he came back to work. 

Villanelle had been taken away by two Dementors, which froze up the hallway, their clamming hands holding onto her as they took her away. Luckily they were in and out for only a minute or so, as everyone around them shivered and hoped for them to go away. 

“What are they going to do to her? Dementor’s Kiss?” 

At that point, a memo flew in from underneath the door. “Hmm,” said Carolyn, eyebrows raising up in surprise. “She’s escaped already.” 

“ _ What!? _ We are not out there trying to find her!? It’s been only two hours since those damn creatures took her!” 

“She wouldn’t have gone far,” Carolyn paused to read the rest of the note. “Her patronus was  _ Eve Polastri _ ?” 

Eve burst out laughing. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard. Patronuses can’t be humans. They’re only animals.” 

“Humans are animals,” Carolyn pointed out. “We are the filthiest, disgusting creatures to ever prohibit this Earth - we are just as bad as Dementors themselves.” 

***

Eve was dreading going home. She decided, for once, to take the tube as it was much slower. She forgot how awful it was, with muggles blasting music from their phones or reading newspapers with still photos. She got home to find Niko standing outside their door. 

“Come.” Villanelle’s voice came out of Niko’s mouth. 

“...Where are we going?” 

“Just to a nice cafe.” 

***

The ‘nice cafe’ ended up being a Pret a Manger around the corner. Eve would have preferred the coffee shop she and Niko went to down the road, but she wasn’t in control right now. 

“Three cups of tea, please,” Villanelle said at the counter. It was a completely empty shop, as it was near closing time. 

“I prefer coffee,” Eve said. 

“Two cups of tea, and a coffee,” Villanelle said. “Make sure the coffee has only half a sugar in it, skim milk, and make a cool picture with the foam. Maybe make it look like a penis, or something.” 

“On it.” the barista said, and Villanelle handed over a tenner. 

Eve looked at Villanelle as they sat in the corner of the cafe. “Is there someone joining us?” 

“No,” Villanelle said. “We have our options, and as I know the Ministry and the Azkaban officers are coming for me, and that damn Konstatin and Carolyn possibly won’t get off my back. I want to strike you a deal.” 

The cups were placed in front of them. 

“You can have the tea, and I’ll give you full permission to arrest me and I’ll go back to those stupid dementors. Or, you could have the coffee - which I will put a Remembering Potion in. Brings back everything you have lost. All those memories. A complete reversal.” 

“I haven’t lost anything, though,” Eve lied. “I’ve been working for the Ministry for twenty years.” 

Villanelle let out a laugh. “ _ Maaaybe  _ fifteen of those you did. You weren’t there for a while, nor were you in London, and I can prove it. Funny how there are no photos of you and Niko on your wall from the last few years…” 

“We haven’t had time to take photos.” 

“It’s the 21st century, it does not take that long to take one simple photo.” Villanelle clicked her lips and teeth together, imitating the sound of a muggle camera. She got out from her jacket a small vial of glittering, purple liquid, and tapped it lightly into the coffee cup. 

_ She’s right. When was the last time Niko and I had a simple photo? _


	4. twelve becomes two

_ Five years ago  _

The day a troll attacked Niko outside their home because it liked the Flitterbloom in the garden, Eve had taken him to St Mungos. 

After reassuring Niko his leg bone would grow back in a matter of hours, she’d gone into the toilets for a break. She didn’t like hospitals very much. At least with muggle ones they smelled of disinfectant and didn’t have wizards in wards with cauldrons for heads. 

She put her wand on the shelf while she rinsed her hands. 

A healer was standing next to her, in lime green robes, doing her makeup. _ Blonde, with nice eyes, _ Eve observed. What was  _ she  _ doing here? She wanted to know.  _ Was it her break? _ These were the visitors toilets, after all. Eve opened her mouth, but no words came out. She could see the woman looking at her out the corner of her eye. 

She watched as the woman slowly applied a nice shade of red lipstick to her mouth. She smacked her lips to make sure they were evenly coated, and turned to Eve. 

“I see your wand looks similar to mine,” she said. “What sort is it?” 

“Hornbeam with Phoenix feather,” Eve smiled awkwardly at her in the mirror, using her fingers to push back her hair. 

“Mine too!” 

“What, really?” 

“Maybe we even have the same phoenix feather…” The woman said. Her accent suggested she was possibly from Eastern Europe. She took out her wand, which had been in the inside pocket of her lime green robes. “They say wands have sister cores. Hornbeams are one of the most loyal wands; yet Phoenix feathers can betray their owners.” 

“I have heard that.” Eve agreed. Phoenix feather wasn’t common either, as Phoenixes were rare to come by. 

“It is not a good combination, I think.” 

The healer’s wand was half an inch longer than Eve’s, but a similar shade in colour. She put it back in her robes quickly. “Enough about wands...I like your hair. I’m not good at curly hair myself, it always straightens out in minutes.” 

Eve looked surprised. “Thank you.” 

“Leave it down,” The healer suggested. “Looks nice.” At that point, she turned away and stalked out the door. 

Eve decided to not walk after her - she seemed like an interesting person, and in Britain talking to strangers was basically a no no. Especially ones she’d just met. She took out her lipstick to apply to her mouth, noticing it was the same shade as the woman’s. 

***

Villanelle was so mad she accidentally murdered everyone in the ward (when Konstatin told her to only take one patient out and make it look like a hanging). Three healers, six patients, two visitors. That woman made her  _ feel.  _ She didn’t want that at all. 

Maybe she should siphon the blood away before she made her grand escape from St Mungos? Villanelle frowned.  _ Perhaps not. The Ministry can deal with it.  _

_ Maybe she could help me with what I need to do. _

There was a clatter as behind her, and that women from the bathroom had come in, dropping her things in surprise as she took one frightened look at Villanelle and backed off. 

They took one look at each other, and that was when Villanelle muttered, 

_ “Imperio.”  _

*** 

While the hospital was going into lockdown, Villanelle approached Niko’s bed. Eve sat behind her, waiting for Villanelle to give her orders. 

Niko looked dazed as Villanelle put her wand on his forehead. “You will forget your wife Eve existed, you are an ordinary muggle who happened to mess with magic. Do you understand?  _ Obliviate.” _

This put Niko into a deep sleep, his memory working hard to forget his wife. Eve, still under the curse, did not object to what was happening. 

“We’re going.” 

***

A few days later, Villanelle took off the Imperius Curse, to find Eve was very mad at her. 

“You know I’m an Auror, right?” Eve whispered. “I can  _ end  _ you.” 

They were in the middle of a town square, surrounded by pigeons. Muggles were shopping left and right, and Villanelle was throwing seeds from a paper bag for the birds. “Technically, you could,  _ but  _ you’ve been under my Imperius Curse for several days,” said Villanelle. She’d gone into the Ministry as Eve and extracted all information about her from her files. “Aurors should be able to lift it.” 

They both knew each of them wouldn’t be able to attack the other in front of Muggles. 

“It’s called a Forbidden Curse for a reason,” said Eve. “You can get a life sentence is Azkaban for this.” 

“Sorry, I didn’t learn at Hogwarts,” said Villanelle, smiling. “British rules don’t apply to me. Shouldn’t have left the European Union. Also, I have your wand.” 

_ Well, this was just great.  _ “What will you do now, now you have caught an Auror? Torture me for information?” 

“Pfft, I don’t need torture for information.” Eve watched as equal parts horror and amazement as Villanelle’s blonde hair turned black and curly, her face became sharper and older, and within a few seconds, she looked almost exactly like Eve - except the blue eyes. “I don’t even need Polyjuice potion. All I need is a face. I have no emotions, no feelings - but every so often, I see someone - usually a pretty older lady - and I wouldn’t mind being them. I could impersonate you for a year, if I wanted to. But as you are an Auror, and you have nice hair… I was wondering if you’d have dinner with me?” 

Eve glanced at Villanelle in surprise, who had changed back to her original form. 

“Wait, what?” 

“You can cook - you’ve got some tasty food in your fridge. I checked before we left London. Our little motel has a kettle and a microwave, you can use them.” 

“You’ve been in my  _ house _ ?” Eve couldn’t believe it. The Imperius Curse made her feel so out of it, she knew roughly what went on in the last few days but not enough to have a timeline of events. All she knew was this was a woman named Villanelle, who she met as a pretend healer in St Mungos, who happened to have murdered a lot of people inside. 

“I just think being an Auror must be so damn hard. You’ve got all the Death Eaters still hanging around, arresting Hogwarts kids for using curses on their classmates, and the only interesting thing you do is going after the hags who try to sell toenails to you in Knockturn Alley…” said Villanelle, her face changing into an old lady with slimy teeth and a pointed nose. Eve  _ almost  _ felt like laughing - it was so stupid, her emotions were mixing between amused and frightened at the same time of a woman who could easily over power her. “I just want to talk over dinner.” 

***

In the motel room, Eve put some cheese between two slices of bread and used the iron provided in the closet to make two cheese toasties. She got out the little bottles of alcohol from the fridge, and put them in some dusty glasses from the cabinet. Her hands shook as she put the glasses on the little desk. Villanelle was staring at the wall opposite their window; it was grey and covered in several layers of paint. 

Their little motel room had a large king sized bed, with an ugly floral green bed covering. A faded print of a town map was printed in a dark frame; the glass itself was cracked. In the light, Eve could see fingerprints on it. 

One of the glasses tipped on the floor. Eve jumped, her mind not working straight. At this point, she would usually try and grab for her wand, which was sitting on the desk next to the glass that hadn’t been knocked over. 

“ _ Reparo _ ,” said Villanelle lazily. The concoction of vodka and a large beer was sucked up from the carpet into the glass, where it jumped back on the desk. “Eve, your wand is  _ lovely  _ to use - it’s like using my own.” 

She didn’t say anything. Eve went over and grabbed the toasties, and turned the iron off. The ‘toasties’ were warm but the thick slabs of red leicester were not even close to melting. 

“We could have just gotten a takeaway,” Eve mumbled. Villanelle looked up, having only had one bite. “You’re lucky I know how to use muggle things like irons.” 

Villanelle looked as if she was considering it. “It’s nicer to have a home meal once in a while.” Several crumbs fell from her mouth onto the floor. She looked so innocent, it was hard even to remember she was a cold blooded murderer. 

Eve sat down, and crossed her arms, watching Villanelle eat. She wasn’t hungry. “What was it you wanted to talk about?” 

“My handler, Konstatin, is in charge of getting me jobs to assassinate dark witches and wizards, and the occasional idiot muggles. With your Auror training, would you like to be a team? I usually work on my own, but I find you are very interesting. It would be nice.” 

Eve couldn’t believe it. Out of everything Villanelle had requested, she wasn’t expecting this. “What sort of dark wizards?” 

“Ministry officials over Europe, people like that. Maybe a few in America, like at MACUSA, and so forth.” 

“They aren’t dark, though, those are world leaders!” 

“They’re  _ corrupt _ ,” said Villanelle. “Dark, corrupt - same thing. But he’s asking for a big task from me - joining a team called  _ The Twelve _ . They are evil witches and wizards who kill good people like myself. They have two spots open. He wants me to get rid of the remaining ten.” 

“Why can’t you just take one spot, and not get me involved?” 

“I’m kind of on the run from the Ministry, and I’d rather have someone I trust as the other option instead of having to kill another person who is added to The Twelve.” 

Eve looked into Villanelle’s eyes. “You trust me?” 

She smirked. “Of course not.” 

***

_ Two years later  _

Shadowy figures in cloaks all apparated into the middle of a logging site. The pine trees were stacked neatly in big rows; a burned out truck covered in graffiti was turned sideways in a big puddle of muddy water. 

There were four out of twelve left. Raymond, a short man from England, whom Eve remembered as a former Death Eater who had been on the run since Lord Voldemort’s downfall. Deigo, a Spanish Wizard who liked to torture muggles; Eve, and Villanelle. The rest mysteriously died (according to Raymond). 

Being part of the Twelve wasn’t all fun and games. Goblins paid large sums of money to get rid of Wizards in debt. Several Ministry officials, including ones Eve knew were killed for taking subsidies away from Wizarding charities. 

Were they doing good or bad? Evil wasn’t black and white after all. It seemed grey. Raymond put the hood of his cloak down. 

“I want you two - Eve and Villanelle - to go after Konstaitin Valislov.” 

Eve breathed in. She knew that name; it was Villanelle’s handler, whom she really worked for. She’d only met him several times, but had only stayed in the shadows nearby while Villanelle gave him information he needed. Sometimes he was accompanied by another lady who Eve vaguely recognised as a Ministry official. 

“The master of all Dark Arts?” Villanelle smirked. “He’s a hard, bad boy.” 

“I hear last time you fought him, you took his wand,” Raymond looked directly at Eve. 

“It was a hard fight,” Eve agreed. She had taken the wand off Konstantin to prove to Raymond they had at least exchanged one fight; in reality it was splintering and Konstatin had been planning to go to Ollivanders for another one anyway. 

“Where are the others?” asked Villanelle, pretending to look sad. A master Metamorphmagus, she really was convincing when it came to emotions and faces. “There used to be Twelve.” 

“They have died,” said Raymond. “They are now four. Soon, there will be three…” He turned to the other figure, pale under his cloak. “Diego, I hear you failed to kill Carolyn Martens, for the fourth time?” 

“She’s - she’s,” Diego was trying to think of an excuse. “She’s - really hard to beat, you know-” 

_ “Avada Kedavra!”  _

There was a flash of blinding light, and Diego dropped to the ground, dead before hitting the grass. Eve didn’t say a word; Villanelle moved closer towards her and grabbed her hand, moving her thumb in slow circles. 

Raymond went over and reached into Diego’s pockets, rummaging around. He got out a sack of coins, which he put into his robes, then his wand. He snapped it, sparks flying out the core. 

“No more failures,” he said to Eve and Villanelle. “That’s an order.” 

Raymond was seething, and spat on the ground at Diego’s feet. 

“Oh, for fucks sake -” Villanelle sighed, and got out her wand. “You’re an asshole, you know that?” 

“What?” 

“ _ Incendio!”  _

A ring of fire blasted out the tip of Villanelle’s wand. Flames erupted on Raymond’s robes, who fell down on top of Diego, rolled away, taking his clothes off. He used his own wand to distinguish the flames. There was a snap, and his wand split in half, falling next to Diego’s one which he’d just broke.

“You  _ bitch _ ,” he snarled at Villanelle, his hair smoking slightly and he used the corpse next to him to get up. Eve backed away. “How  _ fucking _ dare you!” 

“God, Raymond, you are the worst - so fucking annoying,” Villanelle gave a small flick of her wand, and slimy green black ropes appeared out of nowhere which crawled onto Raymond’s body. “You’re the last one I need to kill - thanks for getting rid of Diego for me.” 

Raymond wheezed, trying to spit out words. Eve watched as he slowly went purple; Villanelle smiled, her face turning into a splitting image of Raymond’s wife - 

“Villanelle,  _ stop it!”  _ Eve shouted, taking her own wand out. “ _ Relashio!”  _

The ropes suddenly disappeared, shrinking in fast back into Villanelle’s wand. At once, Raymond jumped on Eve, and wrestled her wand out of her hand. 

“Aha!” He shouted, his skin going back to pink from an ugly grey. “You stupid women!” Eve was knocked over into the muddy puddle where the logging truck was. She hit her head, almost passing out from the pain - trying to grab onto something to not sink into the cold mud. 

“You forgot I have many wands.” Villanelle threw Konstatin’s wand at Eve and got out another. It fell into the puddle with a few sparks. “Konstantin's is so ugly.” Villanelle drew out her own long wand. She pointed it at Raymond, who looked defiant. “I prefer to play with my food before eating it, you know.” 

He sneered. “Pathetic. You really are. I’ll just finish you off, once and for all.” 

Villanelle gave out a harsh laugh, echoing around the forest. “Use any spell you want! It’s not going to work!” 

“ _ Avada Kedavra!”  _ Raymond screaming, pointing Eve’s wand directly at Villanelle’s chest.

“ _ Expelliarmus!”  _

There was a flash of white light as the two spells collided; Eve tried to find the wand in the water to help, but couldn’t.  _ “Priori Incantatem,”  _ she whispered. She knew Villanelle and herself had sister wands, and they couldn’t even do the simplest charm against each other without the wands throwing a sort of tantrum by forcing them to reverse the spell. She could see Diego’s body appearing, a sort of shadow of his former self when Raymond killed him five minutes ago. Flashes of different rainbow lights appeared around the two of them, that Eve recognised as spells such as the brightly coloured blue freezing charm she used the day before. Villanelle’s wand threw out shadows of former members of the Twelve she had gone after, including Nadia, who looked angry and began yelling at her. 

Raymond and Villanelle were locked in battle, each of them unable to move as a gold thread connected the wands, white wispy smoke surrounded them both. 

Eve had to do something. At one point, she knew the wands would extinguish themselves and Raymond would possibly kill Villanelle. She didn’t want Villanelle to die. The last two years going around the world in first class planes, pretending to be muggles to uncover some of the darkest secrets known to man, liasoning with werewolves… were some of the best years of her life. 

Being able to wake up and have an adventure everyday instead of sitting around bored in an dingy Auror office was a far better life than anything she’d ever wanted. 

Eve felt something hard in the puddle, and she pulled it out. It wasn’t the wand, it was much bigger… an axe. Right then, she knew what to do. 

She wiped the blood off her forehead, and shakily got up, her robes heavy from the muddy puddle. Her hands gripped the wet axe as she made her way over to Raymond, whose  _ Avada Kedavra  _ spell was slowly advancing on Eve’s disarm charm. 

With enough strength she pulled the axe up, and bludgeoned it into Raymond’s head. 

The spell broke, and Villanelle got out the way just in time for the killing curse to miss and hit the trees. The shadows and lights of spells disappeared at once and daylight returned into the clearing, where a very muddy and now bloody Eve was standing in front of a dead Raymond as she had sliced his head open from top of possibly his nose. 

Villanelle crouched down and inspected the brains. “Ew,” She said. “Looks kind of like a tin of pasta,” Then, she took Eve’s wand out of Raymond’s grip. “Here.” 

“Thanks…” Eve said, trying not to look at the mess she had made. The logs of the pine trees were now cut or burnt, the grass was muddy. 

It was cold, she realised. She had been so focused on trying not to die, her body didn’t recognise the fact they were in a forest clearing near the start of Winter. “There, there,” said Villanelle, using a drying charm to dry Eve’s robes to make her warmer. “I’ll see if I can transfigure a blanket out of these trees-” 

There was a crack, and a pop. Eve could see people were apparating to their location. Dark figures came out of the trees and into the clearing. 

“Shit,” said Villanelle under her breath. “It’s the Ministry of Magic.” 

Carolyn Martens, head of Magical Law Enforcement, whom Eve recognised as the lady who accompanied Konstantin on his visits to Villanelle sometimes, appeared right in front of them. She pulled out her ID card. 

“Who killed Raymond?” She asked, and Eve and Villanelle looked at each other. Eve didn’t dare breathe. 

_ Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. They were in for it now. How were they supposed to get out of this?  _

“I did,” said Villanelle. “He’s a  _ bitch  _ who hates  _ women _ .” She leaned over, and spat slowly over his body, her saliva long and stringy. It took a few seconds for it to drop onto his bloodied head. 

“You’re under arrest for murder,” said Carolyn, summoning a pair of handcuffs out of thin air, where they clicked on her hands. Her wand, now lying on the grass, looked shattered. 

“What!?” Villanelle snarled, struggling against the cuffs. “You fucking  _ double crosser! _ ” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Carolyn said coldly. Two ministry officials marched Villanelle out of the clearing, and there was a sudden  _ crack  _ as they apparated. She turned to Eve. 

“I am going to concoct for you a very strong forgetful potion, where you will not remember the last few years,” she said. “I will take a sip of it also to forget these crimes upon The Twelve… It will save our lives.” 

“Why not just use the memory charm?” asked Eve, feeling very dirty now compared to the clean Carolyn. 

“I’d rather you not end up doing a Lockhart and having to stay in St Mungos,” Carolyn said. “After all, your skills are needed elsewhere.” 


	5. it's not what you would have wanted

“I did it to protect you! Raymond's an asshole, Eve! He’s like… Lord Voldy but real short. S-h-o-r-t!” 

Villanelle’s face for a few seconds temporarily became Raymonds; a big nose with a receding ginger hairline. She blew a raspberry, and regained her normal face, waiting for Eve to reply to what she remembered as she sipped more of the potion inside the coffee. 

Eve didn’t really know what to say. She wasn’t even sure if that was  _ all  _ the memories that were taken from her. There were so many things she was confused about, she just decided to deal with it and move on instead of pondering about it. 

It was like a game of who could forget the fastest - in first place Eve, then Carolyn and then Niko. 

But after Villanelle was taken away on the day twelve became two, Eve didn’t know what happened afterwards; as she had started working for Carolyn pretty much the next day on other assignments. She put her cup down on the small white plate with a  _ chink.  _ “What happened next?” 

“I was taken to Azkaban. I was so lonely. It’s a very boring place to be.” Eve watched as Villanelle stared at her cup for a while, and then pouted, her lips looking like little pink balloons. “Dementors are no  _ fun _ at all. They tried to make me feel emotions, or remember things I don’t fucking care about.” 

Eve shivered slightly. She did not like Dementors at all. The Ministry had gotten rid of them for a while, but were soon reinstated as prisoners kept escaping from the Aurors on guard. The first sign in her little office that a Dementor was at the Ministry was her tea or coffee suddenly turning to ice, therefore ruining a perfectly good drink. 

The cafe was empty now, it was supposed to be closing in about ten minutes. The waitress was cleaning wooden tables and putting chairs up; she left both of them alone. 

“So how did you get out?” Eve asked. There would be a million and one ways that Villanelle could have ran away; she was possibly the best at evading capture for anyone she’d ever known. “You can’t morph your face into a Dementor.” 

“True,” Villanelle agreed. “You see, Konstatin was sentenced for a year and a half for being associated with The Twelve - but only served a few months. He wanted his wand back.”

Eve suddenly remembered the wand being thrown at her and sinking into the puddle that contained the axe which killed Raymond. 

“I said get me out -  _ then  _ I would give him his wand back. Or tell him where it is. It was pretty easy - he smuggled in a vial of Felix Felicis… I walked out, found a broomstick some Auror had left around and left.” 

“Did Konstatin get his wand back?” 

Villanelle smirked. “Of course fucking not. I found he was working for the Ministry with a lovely  _ lady  _ we both know named Carolyn, who has used enough Memory Charms to fuck up anyone, and this Carolyn had a nice little minion on her list of Aurors named Eve Polastri.” 

“And that’s when you went back to murdering?” 

“Yes. I thought I’d send a message, starting at Azkaban, then to Newcastle…” 

Eve looked up. “Azkaban? You started in Newcastle?” 

Villanelle shook her head, and frowned. “I don’t think anyone would notice if Dolores Umbridge was beheaded and her head was put on a stick.” 

Oh. 

_ Well  _ Eve didn’t realise that had happened. Not that anyone liked Umbridge - Eve knew she had tortured Hogwarts students and muggleborns in the 90s, and played a role in the Second Wizarding War. 

She leaned in close enough to Eve, so they were only a few inches apart. She started to whisper. “Now, do you stay in your previous life as a boring Auror, who only catches rebellious Hogwarts students who are jailed for going to other people’s common rooms, or come with me?” 

_ What.  _ Eve knew - in her heart - what she wanted to do. 

Her mind, however, thought of something else. “You  _ murdered  _ muggles to get my attention!” 

Villanelle frowned. “So? They’re just muggles?” 

“ _ Niko  _ is a muggle!” 

“...So?” 

Eve sighed in exasperation. “You just don’t realise, do you? People are  _ people _ , and you can’t just end lives to write  _ Eve  _ on a map-” 

“I even started on December 24th! If you had paid attention sooner, then we would have been together again in no time,” Villanelle protested. 

“...You know, you could have knocked on my door and said,  _ Hello, Eve,  _ instead of killing people.” 

Villanelle crossed her arms. “It’s not what you would have wanted.” 

Eve paused to think about what Villanelle had just said.  _ It’s not what you would have wanted.  _ If Villanelle had turned up out of the blue and told her she was back from Azkaban, gave her a Remembering potion and that was it, Eve would have asked herself why Villanelle had done that and not did a better message. 

The waitress came over to collect their cups. “How was your drink?” 

“It was a drink to remember,” said Eve. The waitress seemed to understand what she meant, as she nodded. 

“I suppose memories are strengthened by cups of coffee.” 

Villanelle tried to bat her away. “Go do your job,” she said. The waitress only stood there, watching calmly, holding the cups. “...Leave?” Villanelle’s eyes popped out, making large circles around her eye sockets, in an attempt to scare her away. “...Goodbye?” Her eyes went back in, and her nose started to lengthen, until it became a long, thin stick. It waved, as if to make the waitress go away. 

“That’s a muggle,” said Eve. “Don’t do that.” 

“I’ll do what I want.” 

“You always do, Oksana,” The waitress’s face began to bubble, but unlike Villanelle’s smooth and sleek transition into other appearances, this one looked more forced. 

_ Polyjuice Potion.  _

Carolyn had appeared before them, smiling away as she always did. 

“You know, I don’t know if I should love you, or hate you,” said Villanelle, not looking surprised the person that put her in Azkaban was standing in front of her in a black apron. “Love you for being able to help Eve find me again, or hate you for taking away her mind and putting me in Azkaban.” 

Eve felt sick. She had gone behind Carolyn’s back, found Villanelle… was she fired? What was going to happen? 

Definitely not able to work with her again, that was for sure. No more trust. 

“Did you know that Memory Modifying Potions are also the same colour as Remembering Potions? Purple. Thought I’d let you know.” 

“Don’t listen to her, Eve,” Villanelle said. “Tell me if you want me to kill her - I can do it.” 

“But you also have ten hidden wands pointed at you,” said Carolyn, still smiling. 

Eve looked around the little coffee shop. She couldn’t really see anyone - except a few shimmers in the corner.

_ That meant a disillusionment charm,  _ she realised. 

“I saved your lives, so you could be free,” said Carolyn. “Free, Eve - from the few years you had working as an assassin, and Villanelle - free from people wanting to kill you. I think it's best if we put the past behind us, and you can both work for me, together. We’ll start again - as the original Twelve. That’s my deal. A different sort of Twelve.” 

“Not Twelve, too many boring people.” 

“Well then,” said Carolyn. “Twelve becomes eleven.” 

There was a thump as something hit the table. Someone under the disillusionment charm fell down, hitting the little paper sugar sachets which fell to the nicely mopped floor. “Eleven becomes ten,” there was another bang, this time in the corner Eve had looked at. “Nine.”  _ Bang.  _ “Eight.”  _ Thump.  _ “Seven.”  _ Thud.  _ “Six.”  _ Smack.  _ “Five.”  _ Thwack.  _ “Four.”  _ Blow.  _

The disillusionment charms evaporated, leaving a lot of bodies around the cafe. Eve got up and rushed over to them; they seemed to all be Aurors from the Ministry. She recognised them, and swallowed. 

She felt as if she was going to throw up. 

“You said there were ten,” Villanelle said, getting up after Eve. “If I am not mistaken, twelve minus ten is two… there are three remaining.” 

“I didn’t mean these people,” said Carolyn. She reached into her pocket slowly. Eve was about to shout out, as she knew she must be reaching for her wand. “The ones over at the Ministry under me-” 

“ _ Avada Kedavra.”  _

In the most calmest voice imaginable, Villanelle had struck Carolyn with Eve’s wand, hitting her square in the chest with the Killing Curse. The jet green light evaporated as quickly as it came, flashing against the windows and the whites of the dead wizard eyes around the room. 

Carolyn fell down, like the others crowded around the coffee shop. 

“Right, I’m done here,” said Villanelle, as if nothing had happened. She smiled slightly, and gave Eve back her wand. “Here.” 

“Now give me my fucking wand back,” Konstatin came out from behind the counter, stuffing an invisibility cloak in his robe. He was holding a coffee; he must have made himself one beforehand. Villanelle handed it over, and he admired it from all angles. 

“Konstantin! It has been far too long!” 

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes.” He picked at the amount of bandages Villanelle must have wrapped around it to keep the splinters at bay. 

The presence of her handler made her almost act giddy, Eve noticed. She still felt a little left out, confused, not knowing what she should do. 

“And that, Eve, is how you get rid of a lot of nosy Ministry of Magic employees,” Villanelle carefully stepped on Carolyn’s head. She opened the door to the high street. “You coming, Eve?” 

“...What’s going on?” 

“It was all part of the plan,” said Villanelle cheerily. “The Queen of Double Crossing has crossed herself.” 

Eve could see Villanelle and Konstantin high fiving in the doorway. “You coming?” She repeated. “We’re going back to how we used to be. Travelling the world, taking on jobs. But not as Twelve, as a two. Plus, Konstatin  _ buuuuut  _ he doesn’t really count, does he?” 

They looked at her, expecting her to say yes. 

“...” Eve shrugged to make fit of what had just happened. “Villanelle… Is this all in my head?” 

“Of course it is happening in your head, Eve. But why on earth do you not think this is real?” 

***

They left the cafe, Villanelle chatting about the nice dress robes she was going to buy Eve in Diagon Alley. In the reflection of the cafe window, she saw herself. Tired, worn out, confused and somehow agreed to go back to her old life as an assassin with Villanelle. 

She had the urge to Obliviate herself and go back to Niko, but for once in her life, made sure that thought was quickly stamped out. 

She’d see Niko again… just not today. 

She looked at Villanelle in the reflection, who had turned her face into Eve’s, and winked quickly and then returned to her usual self. 

“...I think red is your colour, Eve, but Konstatin will tell you he’d prefer purple, because he has a daughter whom he tried to dress in purple and she hit him with her broomstick… We’ll go over the Apothecary quickly because I’m pretty sure Carolyn was lying, Memory Modifying Potions are blue...” 

She was starting over again. 

The Twelve was now Two. 

She could feel Villanelle lightly touching her shoulder, guiding her towards the Leaky Cauldron. “I think we are going to be good together, you and I.” 

And the Twelve could become One. 


End file.
